EN Idanha-a-Velha is a small picturesque village, consisting of a remarkable group of ruins, which holds a position of high standing among the national archaeological works. It stands on a place where formerly was a Roman City (1st century B.C.), which was inserted in “Civitas Igaeditanorum”, having become a Roman Municipality later on. An inscription dating from 16 B.C., where we can read that “Quintus Lallius”, a citizen from “Emerita Augusta” (Mérida) “has willingly given a sun-dial to Igeditanos” witnesses the existence of an urban site on those by gone days. In 105, in an inscription on Alcântara Bridge (a very important Roman engineering work) the village is referred to as one of the most important Municipalities that contributed to the Bridge construction. Nowadays there are still a lot of evidences showing that civilization permanence: the “podium” of the temple on which the Templar’s Tower stands; the Northern Gate and its wall; one exceptional group of tomb stones and various scattered remains. In the Visigoth Era, under the name of “Egitânea”, the village witnessed golden developing times, having been a diocese seat since 599 and a gold coining Bishop’s Palace and the See are material witnesses of those golden days. The Arabs got hold of the city until King Afonso III from Leão conquered it, during the Christian fights but it was already an integrating part of Condado Portucalense at the time of Portugal foundation. Later one, King Afonso Henriques delivered it to the Templar monks. In 1229, King Sancho II chartered it. King Dinis included it in “Ordem de Cristo” (1319). Along the times, other peopling attempts followed. In 1510, King Manuel I chartered it again, being the Pillory a witness of this fact. In 1762, it was know as a small town in Castelo Branco jurisdiction; in 1811, it becomes attached to Idanha-a Nova; in 1821 it becomes the seat of a small municipality, still existing in 1936. Intentionally, and along the centuries, people tried to reorganize the urban space, revitalizing it in social, economic, political and cultural fields. However, its historical desertification course was drawn. Nowadays, Idanha-a-Velha (considered a National Monument) emerges quite renewed. An historical village wisely adapted to those who live here and to those who visit it.

EN Monsanto stands in the Northeast side of Idanha Lands, nestled in a steep hill slope - Monsanto hillock(“Moons Sanctus”) -, which abruptly rises out of prairie and reaches 758 meters on its highest point. There are several hamlets scattered along the several slopes and at the bottom of the hill, which shows the population movements towards the plain. It’s a very ancient place with evidence of human presence since the Palaeolithic Era. They found archaeological evidence of a Lusitanian fortress and of the Roman occupation in. St. Laurence’s field, at the foot of the hill, as well as of Visigoth and Arabian occupation. King Afonso Henriques conquered Monsanto to the Moors and, in 1165, granted it to the Templar monks who had the castlebuilt under the orders of Gualdim Pais. King Afonso Henriques first chartered the village in 1174 and the king Sancho I(1190) and king Afonso III (1217) confirmed the charter. King Sancho I rebuilt and repopulated the fortress, which had been destroyed during the fights against the King of Leão. In 1308, King Dinis granted it a charter, which allowed a fair to take place near the chapel of “São Pedro de Vir-a-Corça”. King Manuel I granted it a New Charter in 1510, giving it the right to be a town. In the middle of the 17th century, Luis de Haro, Minister of Filipe IV, tried to siege Monsanto, but he had no success. Later on, in the beginnings of the 18th century, the Duke of Berwick also sieges Monsanto but the Portuguese Army, commanded by the Marquis of Minas, defeated the invader on the slopes of the hill. In 1758, Monsanto was a municipality, having kept this privilege until 1853. In the 19 th century, the imposing Castle of Monsanto was partly destroyed by the accidental explosion of the munitions storeroom. You are invited to visit what is left of the strong Castle on the hill slope, where you can still watch the “alcaçova”(fortress), the walls and a few sep towers, aswellas the beautiful ruins of St.Michael’s Chapel, from the 12th century, and the Chapel of“Santa Maria do Castelo”. The glorious resistance to Roman or Arabian invaders (people aren’t sure) is celebrated during the Feast of the holy Cross, when people throw pitchers with flowers out of the walls down the slope and woman take the traditional rag-dolls (the-“Marafonas”) to the tower tops. The Chapel of “São Pedro Vir-à-Corça”, a “Monument of Public Interest”, is sited at the foot of the hill, in the suburbs, between “Eugénia” and “Carroqueiro”. It’s a Roman Temple made of granite, probably dating from the 13th century, where you can admire a rose window. In 1308, KingDinis allowed a fair to be carried out around the temple. The archaeological station is housed in a “Building of Public Interest”. Sited in Monsanto administrative division, it was probably Roman “Villa” integrating a Spa. Near the ruins, they also found out four Roman tombs made of granite, as well as a part of paved floor.

EN Salvaterra do Extremo lies next to the spanish border and is of ancient origin. It was a stronghold fortified since early times, and it was over these ruins that king D. Afonso Henriques ordered the Templars to built a castle. Because of its strategic importance, King D. Sancho granted it charter in 1229 and it remained a municipality until 1855, when it was annexed to Idanha-a-Nova. The only features testifying its former priviliges while a municipality are the pillory and the town hall. Almost nothing was left from the medieval castle or the seventeenth century fortification. The walls were mostly dismantled after the Peninsular Wars, leaving today only small and hidden sections between the houses and their yards. Regarding the economic activity, documentary evidence alludes to mining (tungsten, lead, tin and gold), but this has now given way mainly to grazing, extensive farming and hunting areas. Just like Monfortinho, Salvaterra do Extremo celebrates every year, on Easter Monday, the traditional Bodo festivities in honour of Our Lady of Consolation. It is a festivity of abundance and happiness, the result of an ancient vow: that Our Lady would protect the crops from a severe plague of grasshoppers. After celebrating mass and taking parti n the procession, hundreds of local people and visitors – many of them spanish – attend the Bodo, feasting on endless, free supply of traditional lamb stew, bread and wine. he whole parish hás a special charm. People are friendly and hospitable and every street has something to show: the Sardões house, an half-moon shaped dwell, the churches, the town hall and the bell tower where storks nest, the traditional dwellings made of schist and the cylindrical pigsties. Absolutely not to miss the countryside around the river Erges creeks, with its water mills, the medieval watchtower and the allegedly roman cobbled paths.

EN This parish holds some roman remains and it was knowned as Esporão until 1505. It was renamed Ladoeiro on account of the abundance of ponds and marshes in the area. It was re-populated around 1541, during the reign of king D. João III, when it became a municipality, with its own town hall and courthouse. It started to decline around the XVIIth century, due to ferocious attacks by the army during the restorarion wars . made worse because it had no castle to protect it. Today, is one of the most prosperous parishes of Idanha-a-Nova’s county, enjoying considerable economical dinamism due to its wide and well irrigated agricultural fields. Once known for the tobacco and tomato production, local agriculture has turned into new products into recent years, many of them biological certified, like blueberries, watermelons and prickly-pears. While strolling around its streets, we may come across houses with manueline doorways and some of them made of adobe (a traditional building technique consisting on sun dried bricks, moulded from earth, straw and water mixed together), with whitewashed window anddoor frames. The monumental Cross, the parish Church and the Great fountain ( dated 1571 and bearing king D. Sebastião coat of arms) are the best places to meet your friends for a chat by the end of the afternoon. Every Friday during Lent takes place a traditional men-only procession ( Procissão dos Homens). The Great festivities in honour of St. Isidro and the Holy Sacrament take place in mid-August, a few weeks after the Watermelon Festival, an event that attracts countless visitors from the neighbouringmunicipalities and from Spain.

EN Today only the foundations of castle of Idanha-a-Nova are visible. It was founded in 1187 by Gualdim Pais, Master of The Order of the Temple, prior to the granting of the town charter, and like the castle of Monsanto, would have been built to oversee the plains and defend the town (which in those days was much more important, though also more vulnerable, than it is today). It was a small castle, consisting basically of the mayor’s palace, to which a second surrounding wall was added in the 15th century. This enclosed the Parish Church, though the rest of the town was left outside. The Chapel of Misericord was built in the 16th century in rough-hewn stone. It has a single nave, and a main chapel in carved painted wood dating from the 18th century. In keeping with tradition, it also has two side altars, brought from the now extinct convent of St Anthony. The Parish Church, dedicated to Our Lady of the Conception is medieval in origin and belonged to the Order of the Temple. We know from the drawing by Duarte d’Armas that it was located inside the castle walls in the 16th century. With a mane façade in the Mannerist style, it nevertheless retains certain Renaissance features, such as the three-nave structure and the Gothic rib vaulting in the main chapel. Little is known about the bell tower or the clock, though it is presumed to have been built from the stone from the dismantled castle. As for the stately home of the Marquis of Graciosa, the oldest part of this is the central tower, commissioned in 1458 by Afonso Giraldes, a nobleman of the royal house of King Afonso V. The two side walls and the balcony were added in the 17th century (1611) by Domingos Giraldes, descendant of the founder, and governor of the town. The House of the Cunhas, for its part, is a residential property built in the 16th or 17th century on a longitudinal plan. It has three sets of single-or double-sloped roofs, and the doors and windows are irregularly laid out. Particularly noteworthy is a balcony whose roof is supported by a round arch, believed to be from the now vanished Chapel of St Peter. The House of the Counts of Idanha-a-Nova, also known as the Corsican’s House, is an elegant 18th century building in the “Chao style”. The ground floor contains a patio and storage areas, while the first floor houses the elegant living area, with oriel windows decorated with shell motifs. The 17th century Franciscan convent of St Anthony was converted into a stately home in the 20th century. Next to the convent church is the old Baroque church of St Francis of Assis dating from the 18th century. Both of these have now been deconsecrated and are used as agricultural storehouses. The Chapel of Our Lady of the Pains, which probably belonged to the former convent, is a small Baroque church from the 18th century, whose façade overlooks the square. This one is still used for Catholic worship. The Palm Tree Palace, dating from 1900, is an old stately home built for one of the most important landholding families in Idanha, at a site that would then been in the outskirts of the town. Particularly impressive are the old stables to the right and back of the main building, and the garden, which dates from the end of the 1930s. This contains a number of exotic species, such as the palm trees which gave the house its name, and which would have been an absolute novelty in these parts at the time. At the beginning of the 1990s, the Idanha-a-Nova Business School was reconstructed and adapted to its present function. The Town Hall, built at the end of the 1950s in the most traditionalist Estado Novo style, was designed by António Lino, who also designed the monument to Christ The King in Almada, and contributed various works to the Portuguese World Exhibition of 1940 (such as the ornamental lake) in Lisbon and the colonnade at the Sanctuary of Fátima. This building replaced the old Council House in the historic part of Idanha-a-Nova, and along with the Palm Tree Palace, defines the character of the central square in the new part of the town, making an important contribution to the affirmation of the present town centre. Not far away, the Centro Cultural Raiano configures the most impressive landmark of Idanha-a-Nova development in recent years. Like a contemporary castle, it was designed to fight for the promotion of culture and to overcome boundaries.

ENEven 800 years are not enough to tell the full history of Proença-a-Velha, Proença, Prohencia. One of the most prolific settlements in Portugal and almost as old as the nation itself, life in this Proença-a-Velha actually reaches back to the times when it was located on the outskirts of the Civitas Igaeditanorum, an important Roman city founded at the end of the first century BC and today known as Idanha-a-Velha. The size and expansive logic of the old Igaeditania generated a number of nearby settlements that persist to this day despite the efforts of several invading civilizations and Muslim occupation. It would be the Christian reconquest’s rhythm, strategy and necessity for settlement that would determine the territorial status of Prohencia-a-Velha as a village, even if it was neither particularly ‘Velha’ (Old) nor a village. On their inexorable progress southwards, the Christians needed to secure the Tagus line, ensuring the defence of the surrounding territories within the enormous extensions granted to religious and military orders, which in Beira Baixa were under the dominion of the Knights Templar. The growth of the town of Proença was not linear, but progressed in lockstep with the reconquest. On 22 April 1218, less than a century after the formation of Portugal, with the approval of the third king of Portugal D. Afonso II, the village was bestowed with a charter from D. Pedro Alvites, Master Templar, together with Brother Mendo Gonçalves, Commander of Tomar, and Brother Fernando Martins, commander of Egitania (the Suebi and Visigoth name for Roman Civitas Igaeditanorum) and settler of Prohencia. As such, the charter granted for the purposes of repopulating Proença was granted by a previous settler. The bestowing of the status of village for the purposes of repopulation was very clear, as Egitania had been abandoned for many years, with this condition spreading in the vicinity. As a village in Templar territory and one of the oldest settlements in the kingdom, Proença, whose etymology establishes the Gallic origin of its settlers, regained economic and especially agricultural vitality, social and administrative organisation and its own legal architecture as the centre of a district that, between 1218 and 1836, included the parishes of São Miguel d’Acha and Santa Margarida. In 1842, Proença-a-Velha was included as a parish of the district of Idanha-a-Nova, as it remains today. Its long history is a tribute to the strength and resilience of its inhabitants, who knew how to build, defend and preserve their identity and a wealth of historical and socio-cultural heritage that even time itself could not overcome. Life never left Proença behind.

EN Strasbourg is the capital and largest city of the Grand Est region of France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. Strasbourg is the seat of several European institutions, such as the Council of Europe (with its European Court of Human Rights, its European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines and its European Audiovisual Observatory) and the Eurocorps, as well as the European Parliament, among others. Strasbourg’s historic city centre, the Grande Île (Grand Island), was classified a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1988, the first time such an honour was placed on an entire city centre. Strasbourg is immersed in the Franco-German culture and although violently disputed throughout history, has been a bridge of unity between France and Germany for centuries, especially through the University of Strasbourg, currently the second largest in France, and the coexistence of Catholic and Protestant culture. The largest Islamic place of worship in France, the Strasbourg Grand Mosque, was inaugurated by French Interior Minister Manuel Valls on 27 September 2012. Economically, Strasbourg is an important centre of manufacturing and engineering, as well as a hub of road, rail, and river transportation. The port of Strasbourg is the second largest on the Rhine after Duisburg, Germany. Strasbourg holds one of the oldest and largest Christmas markets in France, with a wonderful setting in front of Strasbourg Cathedral. Strasbourg Cathedral, with its Gothic towers and famous astronomical clock, is worth a visit in itself. Strasbourg Christmas Market has over 300 chalets spread out over 12 locations, and attracts over 2 million visitors during the Christmas season. Every year, Strasburd dedicates this market to a diferente country, this year will host Portugal. The village of the country invited in Place Gutenberg, where cultural performances wil take place along with the concerts in the Cathedral and St. Pierre-le-Jeune Church.